Difference between revisions of "Editor's Corner"
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==Overview== | ==Overview== | ||
| − | + | The Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK) sprung out of a recognition in the summer of 2009 that the systems engineering (SE) discipline could benefit greatly by having a living authoritative guide to what is included in the discipline, how the discipline should be structured to facilitate understanding, and what its most important readings are. The effort to create the SEBoK and a companion effort to create the Graduate Reference Curriculum on Systems Engineering (GRCSE) coalesced into the BKCASE Project, which we began in September 2009. | |
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| − | + | The scale and complexity of BKCASE emerged over the first few months. Systems engineering is large and relatively immature when compared to more ''classic'' engineering disciplines such as electrical and mechanical engineering. We were extremely pleased with how the community rose to the challenge. New authors stepped up and we routinely assembled 25 to 30 authors every three months in a multi-day workshop to iron out issues and make key decisions. | |
| + | One of the most critical decisions occurred in January 2011 when the team confirmed a switch to a wiki-based presentation for the body of knowledge. This added a lot to the complexity of the effort, but offered great advantage in modularity for update, access to interim material by the authors, easy review and suggestions for improvements, and flexible navigation. In hindsight, the impact of choosing a wiki was much greater than we understood. Now that version 1.0 is complete, however, we are very happy we went down that path. We believe this format to present the body of knowledge will serve the SE community much better than if we had produced a traditional PDF or Word document. | ||
| − | + | The earliest value of the SEBoK is simply the greater sense of community that has developed among the authors, which include many fellows of professional societies and other leaders in the field. For example, the relationship between Systems Science and Systems Engineering is now more clearly understand than in the past. This relationship is captured in Parts 2 and 3 of the SEBoK. | |
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| − | The | + | The greater value of the SEBoK, of course, will come with the hoped for use by the community now that version 1.0 has been released. If we are successful, the SEBoK will be used by thousands of systems engineers around the world as they undertake such activities as creating systems architectures, developing career paths for systems engineers, and deciding new curricula for systems engineering university programs. |
| − | + | The SEBoK is intended to evolve and morph with use and with changes in the field. The wiki structure is particularly well suited for that purpose. Users are asked to comment about what they like and dislike, what is missing and what should be removed. New articles | |
[mailto:bkcase@stevens.edu bkcase@stevens.edu] | [mailto:bkcase@stevens.edu bkcase@stevens.edu] | ||
{{DISQUS}} | {{DISQUS}} | ||
Revision as of 14:02, 31 August 2012
Overview
The Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK) sprung out of a recognition in the summer of 2009 that the systems engineering (SE) discipline could benefit greatly by having a living authoritative guide to what is included in the discipline, how the discipline should be structured to facilitate understanding, and what its most important readings are. The effort to create the SEBoK and a companion effort to create the Graduate Reference Curriculum on Systems Engineering (GRCSE) coalesced into the BKCASE Project, which we began in September 2009.
The scale and complexity of BKCASE emerged over the first few months. Systems engineering is large and relatively immature when compared to more classic engineering disciplines such as electrical and mechanical engineering. We were extremely pleased with how the community rose to the challenge. New authors stepped up and we routinely assembled 25 to 30 authors every three months in a multi-day workshop to iron out issues and make key decisions.
One of the most critical decisions occurred in January 2011 when the team confirmed a switch to a wiki-based presentation for the body of knowledge. This added a lot to the complexity of the effort, but offered great advantage in modularity for update, access to interim material by the authors, easy review and suggestions for improvements, and flexible navigation. In hindsight, the impact of choosing a wiki was much greater than we understood. Now that version 1.0 is complete, however, we are very happy we went down that path. We believe this format to present the body of knowledge will serve the SE community much better than if we had produced a traditional PDF or Word document.
The earliest value of the SEBoK is simply the greater sense of community that has developed among the authors, which include many fellows of professional societies and other leaders in the field. For example, the relationship between Systems Science and Systems Engineering is now more clearly understand than in the past. This relationship is captured in Parts 2 and 3 of the SEBoK.
The greater value of the SEBoK, of course, will come with the hoped for use by the community now that version 1.0 has been released. If we are successful, the SEBoK will be used by thousands of systems engineers around the world as they undertake such activities as creating systems architectures, developing career paths for systems engineers, and deciding new curricula for systems engineering university programs.
The SEBoK is intended to evolve and morph with use and with changes in the field. The wiki structure is particularly well suited for that purpose. Users are asked to comment about what they like and dislike, what is missing and what should be removed. New articles
SEBoK Discussion
Please provide your comments and feedback on the SEBoK below. You will need to log in to DISQUS using an existing account (e.g. Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) or create a DISQUS account. Simply type your comment in the text field below and DISQUS will guide you through the login or registration steps. Feedback will be archived and used for future updates to the SEBoK. If you provided a comment that is no longer listed, that comment has been adjudicated. You can view adjudication for comments submitted prior to SEBoK v. 1.0 at SEBoK Review and Adjudication. Later comments are addressed and changes are summarized in the Letter from the Editor and Acknowledgements and Release History.
If you would like to provide edits on this article, recommend new content, or make comments on the SEBoK as a whole, please see the SEBoK Sandbox.
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